Discussion:
[Numpy-discussion] Which NumPy/Numpy/numpy spelling?
m***@telenczuk.pl
2016-08-29 11:43:03 UTC
Permalink
Hi all,

What is the official spelling of NumPy/Numpy/numpy?

The documentation is not consistent and it mixes both NumPy and Numpy. For example, the reference manual uses both spellings in the introduction paragraph (http://docs.scipy.org/doc/numpy/reference/):

"This reference manual details functions, modules, and objects included in Numpy, describing what they are and what they do. For learning how to use NumPy, see also NumPy User Guide."

However, in all docs taken together "NumPy" is most frequently used (74%):

% find . -name "*.rst" -exec grep Numpy -ow {} \; | wc -l
161
% find . -name "*.rst" -exec grep NumPy -ow {} \; | wc -l
471

I also reported it as an issue: https://github.com/numpy/numpy/issues/7986

Yours,

Bartosz
Phil Hodge
2016-08-29 12:39:59 UTC
Permalink
Post by m***@telenczuk.pl
What is the official spelling of NumPy/Numpy/numpy?
IMHO it should be written numpy, because ...
Post by m***@telenczuk.pl
import NumPy
Traceback (most recent call last):
File "<stdin>", line 1, in <module>
ImportError: No module named NumPy
Post by m***@telenczuk.pl
import Numpy
Traceback (most recent call last):
File "<stdin>", line 1, in <module>
ImportError: No module named Numpy
Post by m***@telenczuk.pl
import numpy
Phil
Bartosz Telenczuk
2016-08-29 13:22:13 UTC
Permalink
Hi,

I would not mind any choice as long as it's consistent.

I agree that using all-lowercase spelling may avoid some common errors. However,
PEP8 requires all module/package names to be lower case [1]. If we force the
name of the library and the corresponding package to be the same, all Python
libraries would be named in lowercase. This would not be the best choice for
libraries, which have multi-component names (like NumPy = Numerical Python).

Note also that both the Wikipedia page [2] and the official NumPy logo [3] use
"NumPy" spelling.

Some other popular [4] libraries use similar dichotomies:

- Django - import django
- Cython - import cython
- PyYAML - import yaml
- scikit-learn - import sklearn

On the other hand all standard Python libraries are lower-case named.

Cheers,

Bartosz

[1] https://www.python.org/dev/peps/pep-0008/#package-and-module-names
[2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NumPy
[3] Loading Image...
[4] http://pypi-ranking.info/alltime
Post by Phil Hodge
Post by m***@telenczuk.pl
What is the official spelling of NumPy/Numpy/numpy?
IMHO it should be written numpy, because ...
Post by m***@telenczuk.pl
import NumPy
File "<stdin>", line 1, in <module>
ImportError: No module named NumPy
Post by m***@telenczuk.pl
import Numpy
File "<stdin>", line 1, in <module>
ImportError: No module named Numpy
Post by m***@telenczuk.pl
import numpy
Phil
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j***@gmail.com
2016-08-29 16:56:50 UTC
Permalink
https://mail.scipy.org/pipermail/scipy-user/2010-June/025756.html

"NumPy and SciPy to refer to the projects. numpy and scipy to refer to
the packages, specifically. When in doubt, use the former."

I thought there was also another discussion about capital letters, but
I don't find it.

Josef
Post by Bartosz Telenczuk
Hi,
I would not mind any choice as long as it's consistent.
I agree that using all-lowercase spelling may avoid some common errors. However,
PEP8 requires all module/package names to be lower case [1]. If we force the
name of the library and the corresponding package to be the same, all Python
libraries would be named in lowercase. This would not be the best choice for
libraries, which have multi-component names (like NumPy = Numerical Python).
Note also that both the Wikipedia page [2] and the official NumPy logo [3] use
"NumPy" spelling.
- Django - import django
- Cython - import cython
- PyYAML - import yaml
- scikit-learn - import sklearn
On the other hand all standard Python libraries are lower-case named.
Cheers,
Bartosz
[1] https://www.python.org/dev/peps/pep-0008/#package-and-module-names
[2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NumPy
[3] http://www.numpy.org/_static/numpy_logo.png
[4] http://pypi-ranking.info/alltime
Post by Phil Hodge
Post by m***@telenczuk.pl
What is the official spelling of NumPy/Numpy/numpy?
IMHO it should be written numpy, because ...
Post by m***@telenczuk.pl
import NumPy
File "<stdin>", line 1, in <module>
ImportError: No module named NumPy
Post by m***@telenczuk.pl
import Numpy
File "<stdin>", line 1, in <module>
ImportError: No module named Numpy
Post by m***@telenczuk.pl
import numpy
Phil
_______________________________________________
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https://mail.scipy.org/mailman/listinfo/numpy-discussion
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Benjamin Root
2016-08-29 17:47:46 UTC
Permalink
There was similar discussion almost two years ago with respect to
capitalization of matplotlib in prose. Most of the time, it was lower-case
in our documentation, but then the question was if it should be upper-case
at the beginning of the sentence... or should it always be upper-cased like
a proper noun. I don't think a clear consensus was reached, but I ended up
treating it as a proper noun in my book.

I am also pretty sure I used "NumPy" in most places, even for "NumPy
arrays", which still looks weird to me when I go back over my book.

Ben Root
Post by j***@gmail.com
https://mail.scipy.org/pipermail/scipy-user/2010-June/025756.html
"NumPy and SciPy to refer to the projects. numpy and scipy to refer to
the packages, specifically. When in doubt, use the former."
I thought there was also another discussion about capital letters, but
I don't find it.
Josef
Post by Bartosz Telenczuk
Hi,
I would not mind any choice as long as it's consistent.
I agree that using all-lowercase spelling may avoid some common errors.
However,
Post by Bartosz Telenczuk
PEP8 requires all module/package names to be lower case [1]. If we
force the
Post by Bartosz Telenczuk
name of the library and the corresponding package to be the same, all
Python
Post by Bartosz Telenczuk
libraries would be named in lowercase. This would not be the best choice
for
Post by Bartosz Telenczuk
libraries, which have multi-component names (like NumPy = Numerical
Python).
Post by Bartosz Telenczuk
Note also that both the Wikipedia page [2] and the official NumPy logo
[3] use
Post by Bartosz Telenczuk
"NumPy" spelling.
- Django - import django
- Cython - import cython
- PyYAML - import yaml
- scikit-learn - import sklearn
On the other hand all standard Python libraries are lower-case named.
Cheers,
Bartosz
[1] https://www.python.org/dev/peps/pep-0008/#package-and-module-names
[2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NumPy
[3] http://www.numpy.org/_static/numpy_logo.png
[4] http://pypi-ranking.info/alltime
Post by Phil Hodge
Post by m***@telenczuk.pl
What is the official spelling of NumPy/Numpy/numpy?
IMHO it should be written numpy, because ...
Post by m***@telenczuk.pl
import NumPy
File "<stdin>", line 1, in <module>
ImportError: No module named NumPy
Post by m***@telenczuk.pl
import Numpy
File "<stdin>", line 1, in <module>
ImportError: No module named Numpy
Post by m***@telenczuk.pl
import numpy
Phil
_______________________________________________
NumPy-Discussion mailing list
https://mail.scipy.org/mailman/listinfo/numpy-discussion
_______________________________________________
NumPy-Discussion mailing list
https://mail.scipy.org/mailman/listinfo/numpy-discussion
_______________________________________________
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https://mail.scipy.org/mailman/listinfo/numpy-discussion
Stefan van der Walt
2016-08-30 19:17:54 UTC
Permalink
Post by m***@telenczuk.pl
The documentation is not consistent and it mixes both NumPy and Numpy.
For example, the reference manual uses both spellings in the introduction
"This reference manual details functions, modules, and objects
included in Numpy, describing what they are and what they do. For
learning how to use NumPy, see also NumPy User Guide."
That's technically a bug: the official spelling is NumPy. But, no one
really cares :)

Stéfan
Sebastian Berg
2016-08-31 08:30:06 UTC
Permalink
Post by m***@telenczuk.pl
The documentation is not consistent and it mixes both NumPy and Numpy.
For example, the reference manual uses both spellings in the
introduction
    "This reference manual details functions, modules, and objects
    included in Numpy, describing what they are and what they do.
For
    learning how to use NumPy, see also NumPy User Guide."
That's technically a bug: the official spelling is NumPy.  But, no
one
really cares :)
I like the fact that this is all posted in: [Numpy-discussion] ;).

- Sebastian
Stéfan
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Bartosz Telenczuk
2016-09-06 12:05:55 UTC
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Hi,

The general consensus seems to be in favour of using "NumPy" when referring to the project and "numpy" as a module name.

Please note that there are currently PRs in 3 different repositories implementing this practice:

- numpy docs: https://github.com/numpy/numpy/pull/8021
- numpy.org website: https://github.com/numpy/numpy.org/pull/5
- Scipy Lecture Notes: https://github.com/scipy-lectures/scipy-lecture-notes/pull/265

The name of the mailing lists still conflicts with the practice, but perhaps it would be more hassle to rename it than it's worth it. :). There is also some instances of "Numpy" spelling in numpy sources, but changing them would probably need more care and time.

If everyone agrees the PRs could be merged together. Please review and comment!

Thanks in advance,

Bartosz
Bartosz Telenczuk
2016-09-08 08:12:01 UTC
Permalink
The footer appended by the mailing list shows that the name it’s right but only the subject tag is wrong. It’s trivial to fix.
You are probably right, but I wouldn't like to mess up with people's mail filters (some of which may depend on the subject tag).

Cheers,

Bartosz

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